BowdoinOne Day campaign encourages alumni donations

Correction, April 21: Mistaken data about the College budget and the timeline of the BowdoinOne Day project.

BowdoinOne Day a 24-hour fundraising campaign aims to generate at least 423 alumni gifts, next Tuesday, April 23. According to Director of Annual Giving Brannon Fisher, April 23 marks the day in which funds from tuition and endowment symbolically “run out,” and the rest of the academic year is supported by alumni donations.

Fisher said that the initiative, the first in Bowdoin’s history, hopes to use the symbolic April 23 date “to raise as many gifts as we can in one day.”

“We’re trying to use it as an educational opportunity for alumni and students so they understand the role that gift giving plays in Bowdoin’s operating budget,” said Fisher. “[We’re] trying to help alumni understand that Bowdoin wouldn’t really be Bowdoin—and wouldn’t be able to offer the kind of programming that it does—without their support.”

The campaign’s website, bowdoinoneday.com, explains that Bowdoin does not actually run out of money on April 23. Alumni, parent, and friend donations constitute 6 percent of the College’s annual operating budget, and April 23 marks the beginning of the last six percent of the academic year.

According to the website, “Unrestricted gifts to the Alumni Fund allow Bowdoin to most effectively underwrite teaching and learning.” However, alumni may request to designate their gift to academics, student life, environmental stewardship, financial aid, or arts and culture.

According to Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration Katy Longley, 23 percent of Bowdoin’s operating budget is spent on financial aid. “In this fiscal year, this amounts to approximately 30 million dollars dedicated to financial aid,” Longley wrote in an email to the Orient.

In an email to the Orient, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Scott Meiklejohn said the College continues to support its need-blind policy, stating that “in all of my meetings with President Mills and the trustees, conversations about the future have always been about how to gather the resources…to sustain our need-blind approach to admissions.”

In terms of overall alumni giving, Fisher said that Bowdoin is tracking about the same number of alumni donors as last year, and is currently “well ahead of last year in terms of gift revenues, so the dollars are looking very strong.” Fisher said he expects a jump in alumni giving as a result of the BowdoinOne Day campaign.

Approximately 560 alumni volunteers have spent the past several weeks helping the College raise awareness about the initiative. On Tuesday, the College will hold several alumni fund volunteer receptions around the country to conclude the campaign.

“There’s a lot of buzz around this event, and we’re pretty confident that it will be successful,” said Fisher.

For more information about the event, visit www.bowdoinoneday.com.

*In an earlier version of this story, the Orient incorrectly reported that alumni donations make up 6 percent of the College's annual budget. Six percent of the budget comes from the donations of friends of the College, parents, and alumni combined. Additionally, the earlier story stated that volunteers had been working for several months to raise awareness. That is incorrect; they have been working for several weeks.